A Legacy of Demigods:The Cliffs of Acheron
by Maireh
Summary: In a world where fighting monsters and death is a daily objective; three young demigods must find find what is lost. With the world against them, a broken promise and their only safeheaven locked down, is there anything left that they can turn to? On hiatus.
1. Chapter 1

_One_

The dragon charged, and for once Zander wasn't the target.

His friend Nick, who had appeared out of nowhere a moment before, just seemed to keep getting the way, which irked Zander. Irked? Was that even a word? Zander thought it was one, so, yeah, it… irked… him. Nick dodged the beast and both the beast and teenager were heading straight toward Zander.

"Can you not try to get me trampled, Grainer?" Zander murmured, annoyed that he had to dodge the scaly thing due to Nick's horrific attempt at attacking it.

"That's not possible." Nick replied weakly, his eyes were wide with fear. Nick was terrified of fire, and this dragon was full of fire and it intent was on attacking Nick.

Nick ran beside Zander with only a small knife in hand, but Nick held it out like a five foot sword. It was more than obvious that Nick wasn't much of a fighter. He can't even handle a knife right. Yup, that was Nick and yet he seemed to take company with some of the most danger attracting demigod out there. He is a freaking idiot, Zander thought.

Zander saw his chance, the dragon was too busy chasing Nick; Zander charged at the monster, hoping to end its life quickly. Zander heard a sharp crack, an unmistakable sound meaning that his spear had broken. The half that had broken when it came in contact with the monster's scaly armor, was stuck there in-between two very large scales. He cursed loudly and rolled out of the way.

Blasted monster, stupid luck, rotten humidity, cruse that crazy cow lady. If you could call the Queen of the Heavens a 'crazy cow lady,' like that'd stop Zander it was the only thing he could call her that wasn't too insulting. He was already on her bad side, it's always been that way, and he knew it. Especially, after that time when his step-dad took him and Galen to some zoo when he was six, and a few peacocks escaped their cage just to chase Zander into the little girl's- okay, that's not the point.

Having been covered in sticky sweat from the afternoon sun and the humidity, stuck with a partner who was afraid of television none-of-less dragons, plus having to fight Dragon-Breathe and Roasty-Toasty the soon the be died dragons, (who were just not dying right) these thing were not helping his temper. He's been chasing these two stupid dragons all morning, and it was really starting to get on his nerves. After this, Zander decided, he was never visiting Florida again.

The two dragons had broke into a mall only minutes before they split up and were now going opposite ways. Somehow the dragons were working together, it just wasn't natural. Most of the time dragons fought each other for territory, prey, Toaster-Studdles, you name it. But these two, they were working together, it disturbed Zander, to add to that they seemed to be trying to go somewhere particular.

Zander had an idea, but he wasn't sure about it. Ister Longwood, a satyr, had contacted the Camp a few weeks ago; he said there was a demigod that he needed help getting to Camp. Luckily, Zander was just about to visit his mom over in Georgia. He frowned, Ma didn't have long.

Dragon-Breathe screeched loudly, its two heads held high, the tip of Zander's broken spear, which was stuck between two scales, glittered bright bronze in the fluorescent lights of the mall. The humans milled around, looking at the dragon only to blink and walk away a funny dazed look plastered to their faces.

Zander smirked; the Mist was an amazing thing. It's saved his sorry butt more than a few thousand times this week. He got out a second spear from his bag, saving his flashlight for last and charged at the dragon's backside.

|\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\|

Atalanta was having a great day until she set the mall on fire. Mom had planned this trip for weeks, "It'll be just the two of us," Mom had promised her over the phone one night. Mom had gone so far as to ask Grammy to watch her young son for the day. Mom was looking forward to spending the day with her daughter and Atalanta hasn't seen Mom for, at least, five months between Mom's job and Atalanta's boarding school…

Atalanta looked around the store, to the right a small group of teenage girls were looking at a Homecoming dress. Atalanta wasn't going to Poinciana Academy's Homecoming dance. She doesn't dance, period. Of course, Mom wanted her to look at dresses in hopes she would change her mind, which is why she was standing in middle of a sea of glittery costumes.

"Atty, look at this one!" Mom pushed her way through a blockade of gowns.

Atalanta regretted looking at the dress. It made her stomach roll with distaste.

"There is no way that you're going to get me in that. I'm sorry, Mom, just no." Atalanta said waving her hand at the puffy thing.

Mom pouted. As usual Mom won. Atalanta groaned before grabbing the dress from her mom and stomping into a tiny dressing room.

.

It looked worst on her than it did on the hanger. Atalanta groaned, at the same time she heard a knock on her door.

"Baby, are you going to let me see it on you?" Mom's voice came from the other side of the ply-board door.

Atalanta gingerly opened the door, Mom smiled as soon as she walked out. Atalanta looked down, the dress was a sickly pink colored, silky puff-ball that barely reached her knees and it got even worse. Someone must have sneezed sparkles all over it, she decided.

"It looks so pretty on you. I don't understand why you aren't going to the dance, like everyone else." But Atalanta wasn't listening to Mom anymore; instead she was looking at a man just outside the store.

She knew that man, she saw him every day. It was the janitor from her school, the one who she swore was stalking her. And she thought she had once seen him eat an empty soda can, she threw out at lunch, one day. He was well built, even though he was barely five feet tall, with wiry muscles that were half covered with a green T-shirt that said "Buck off!" and under it was a cartoon picture of two mountain goats fighting each other. He wore his usual black bucket hat that covered his wiry hair. The long, baggy pants were weird because it was almost 90 degrees outside. What was even weirder was that he was staring above her, his expression one of confusion. It was like he was trying to make her head combust.

When he caught her staring, he waved at her like they were good friends, and walked away. Atalanta hadn't noticed it before but he had a strange limp. Atalanta stared after him, completely ignoring her mother.

There a flash of green and gold, Atalanta thought she saw a large lizard-critter run up the escalator. Half a second later she heard a blood churning scream. Atalanta half leapt out of her skin, she looked wildly at Mom. Mom had turned toward the noise as well, Mom took a step forward like she was going find out what had made that noise.

Atalanta looked back at where the school's janitor had stood earlier. He was back and now had company with him, two teenage boys around fifteen or sixteen. Atalanta frowned; one of the teenagers held a large black flashlight, holding it like it was a weapon, in his hands. The other boy was taller than the flashlight guy; he had rich brown skin covered by a bright orange T-shirt. The boy, the one with the flashlight, snapped his fingers and everyone in the store went back into motion. Atalanta swore she felt a breeze.

"-so what do think, Atty?" Mom's nickname for her brought Atalanta attention back to the matter at hand. That stupid dress was still on her.

"I'm going to change." Atalanta started to turn back to the changing room when something caught her eye. Or lack of. "Hey, Mom, did you hear that?" She asked looking to where the janitor and his friends were standing only moments before.

"Hear what?" Mom looked in the same direction that her daughter had, "I don't understand, was I suppose to hear something?"

"There was this scream…" Atalanta's voice trailed off. She didn't see the boys or the strange can eating janitor anywhere. It was like they had disappeared.

Atalanta slipped on her dark green and a yellow tennis shoes, she got the feeling that she would need them soon. Something was going to go wrong, she could feel it. In moments like this things always went wrong.

"Atalanta, are you felling alright? " That was the first time Mom had called her by her name, not "Atty" or "baby" but her actual name. It's been a while since she heard her name coming from Mom's lips, not since she got kicked out of her last school in the spring. "You're not coming down with something are you? Do you want me to take you home?" Mom started to shoot of questions when she was nervous. Mom stepped forward to touch her daughter's forehead, but Atalanta stepped back.

The windows to the store shattered with an earth rattling _crash_! In flew the train that took little kids for rides though the mall for seventy-five cents. _No,_ Atalanta thought squinting at it,_ a giant reptile._ The lizard was covered in bright green, the color of acid, and gold scales, with two heads and a whole bunch of teeth, like a chainsaw, that were the size of Atalanta's hands. One of the giant heads roared, its dragon breathe smelt like microwaved fertilizer, which smells pretty gross. All four of its glossy gold eyes looked right at her; both of their mouths spurted out white fire like it was water, and the neon dresses in front of the dragon crackled with pale flames.

The people in the store started to scream, some ran around in circles, well a clever employee tried to direct everyone into the backroom where the fire escape was. Not that a fire exit would help anyone.

|\|\\|/

Mom was tugging at Atalanta, and telling her to move and get out of the store. But something told Atalanta, she wasn't sure what, that the dragon was here for her. Atalanta did what anyone else would do, after realizing this, she pulled away from the safety of Mom and hid behind a rack of lacey dresses. She could hear the dragon move toward her, and Mom shouts her name so loud her voice crackled: "Att_y_! Ata_lan_ta!"

Just then, the dragon opened its mouth, ready to snap Atalanta in half. But before the dragon could, she ran past it into another rack of dresses, the dragon had now turned completely around, facing sideways in the crammed store. Dresses had been knocked down in every direction, some were on fire while others weren't.

Atalanta saw that where the door used to be there was a large hole. She took one last look behind her, Mom was being pulled out by a muscled man, probably one of the girl's dads, and another guy was coming toward her.

The dragon inhaled and its nasals enlarged.

Atalanta took two puffy dress off of the rack and threw it them at the heads, blinding the scaly thing for only a few critical seconds. Atalanta sprinted out of the store as fast as she could.

|\|\\|/

Apparently, the smoke from the burning dresses had activated the sprinkler system and the fire alarms. Heavy mist poured down from the ceiling, soaking everything and everyone, including Atalanta. The silky fabric from the dress repelled the water, Atalanta made a silent promise to thank her mother for picking out the only water resist dress ever, now if only it wasn't _pink_…

The dragon raced out of the dress store with its wings, Atalanta hadn't noticed before, spread wide. She turned down a hall, skidding baseball style as one of the dragon's heads roared and the other sprayed out liquid fire. The fire hit its mark, evaporating the puddle where she was just seconds before, hot steam raised off the ground. Seeing that, Atalanta decided not to look back anymore.

Okay, this was not cool. Being chased around the mall by a fire breathing, bad smelling, winged reptile was not on her list of _Top 10,000 Things I Want to Do in My Lifetime_.

She dove into a vacant Payless Shoe Store, hiding under a register. One of the dragon's green heads reached into the store, its long papery red tongue sticking out of its mouth. _Great, now it's smelling me, _she thought shivering with disgust.

The dragon narrowed in on her scent, and inspiration hit. Atalanta grabbed a product off the wall and dang it! Atalanta forgot she didn't have pockets, instead she tucked the product into the brightly colored satin belt, praying that it would stay there. By now the dragon had started its way toward her.

Atalanta took off, keeping low so not to be seen, down an aisle filled with plastic high heels, as she ran past she pulled off as many shoes off of the shelves as possible, hoping it would slow the dragon down. This didn't go unnoticed by the massive beast and it jumped after her. The dragon was slower than she was, Atalanta noticed happily; that the dragon was also slowed down by all the shoes. And she took a sharp turn heading back out in to the halls of the mall.

She carefully took out the bottle that she took from the Payless store and squirted the shoe oil across the marble floors. It worked like she hoped; the lizard slipped and skidded all over the flooring, splashing oil and water everywhere.

Sadly, this also made it so the dragon was fast. The dragon slid, heading straight for her, its two head thrashing, and a thick stick stuck out where to the two necks came together. Fire flew out everywhere, burning the walls, floor and ceiling because of the oil.

Atalanta tried to avoid being hit by both the sliding dragon and the fire, but the dragon was faster. During this time she noticed a shadowy figure, and then the whole weigh of the dragon's wing had crashed into her, knocking the breath right out of her. She felt something hard smack into her head and her vision went black.

|\|\\|/

When she woke the first thing Atalanta noticed was that the sprinklers had stopped producing water and the cries of fire trucks could be heard from outside the building. It hadn't occurred to Atalanta before, but there was no one else in the building, except for her and the deadly lizard that had trapped her under it's cold wing.

A low growl came from reptile's throat. Atalanta struggled to get out from under the it's wing, but her arm was stuck under a thicker part of its body. The dragon's wing weighed more than she thought was possible for a beast that was believed to fly. Suddenly, the monster fell still, the heavy wing on top of her was even heavier.

"Where did it go?" A deep voice asked. Atalanta rubbed her head with her free arm. Her head really hurt.

"_She_'s under the wing, Zander. Let her out for me. I'll be there in a moment." she heard someone say. He sounded afraid, if she was not mistaken.

"I wasn't talking about the girl. There it is," The first voice mumbled crossly.

Atalanta pulled on her arm, pleading for it to come loose. It didn't budge an inch; she felt pain like needles rush up her arm. Part of the wing was lifted off of her, and she was able move around so she could lie on her stomach. She pulled on her arm a little more, and black dots danced in her vision.

"Here let me help." The person said.

She turned to the voice but she couldn't see anyone, but she saw that the wing was being tucked away, Atalanta sighed with relief. The teenager came into view, the one with the flashlight she saw earlier, was knelt down beside her. Atalanta twisted around, so that now she could see him better. Her head started buzzing.

She looked at the boy next to her. Yeah, he was defiantly around her age, maybe a year older. He was looking at her; his electric blue eyes sparkled in the dim light. She tried to help the boy find a way to get her arm free, but she kept getting in the way. Instead Atalanta lay back and studied him. He was very handsome, she realized, with a strong chin and wavy black hair that kept getting into his blue eyes.

"Need some help, Zan?" Someone behind her asked.

"Nah, I think I have it… Yup. There you go, miss." The boy had somehow propped some of the body with his flashlight, so that it gave her left arm a little wiggle room. Atalanta was able to pull her arm free, without trouble. She held it close to her chest, she was positive it was sprained or worse.

"You're hurt." The other boy said as he helped her up. Well, duh, she's hurt: a crazed fire breathing lizard with wings had chased her around a mall and almost crushed her flat.

"No, she's lucky she lasted that long and pretty dim-witted. Oil is _not _the brightest of ideas when you're facing a fire breathing dragon." The boy behind her said. There goes him being handsome, just another good looking jerk. A jerk that implies there are dragons that breathe things other than fire, Atalanta thought. She slightly hoped they breathed something nice like fluffy pillows or flowers, but doubted it.

"Now is not a good time for dragon killing lessons, let's just get her to Camp." The boy with chocolate colored skin said. He turned to her, "I'm Nick, by-the-way, and that moron," Nick jabbed his thumb at the boy with who wanted to give lessons about killing things, "is Zander. Don't talk to him; he'll just try to guilt you into feeling sorry that you survived."

"Camp?" Atalanta questioned. What was he talking about? What camp?

Zander examined the dragon. "It's not completely gone," he said, "it will be soon. I have no doubt about that. Do you want to do the honor Nick? As for your question, Camp is the only place where our kind is safe." Zander told her still looking over the dragon.

Nick mutter a no way.

Xander took his flashlight from off the ground and walked to the other side of the beast, "are you two waiting for grass to grow? Go on! I'll there in a sec."

She heard Nick mutter something about bad cereal, but she didn't hear the rest. "Zander isn't normally this rude; I think he woke up in a thorn bush this morning." Nick walked beside her.

"Oh." She said smartly, looking at the dragon.

Now that it wasn't trying to kill her she thought that it was pretty cool looking. The scales shone different colors of green and a light tint of purple in the light. Its tail and paws looked like it was dipped in a basin of gold paint. One of its heads moved looking at her. Its mouth opened and it spurted out a weak valley of flames. Zander had pulled a long bronze-like knife from somewhere was too a quick sweep at the dragon, it burst into dust. Atalanta turned away, her head was starting to hurt again and she just wanted to lie down.

"I never caught your name, miss." Zander had run ahead of then and was now walking backward so he could face her. She didn't like the way he said 'miss' it was like he was mocking her.

"My name's Atalanta." She said coldly.

"Didn't Atalanta get turned into a lioness? " Zander asked. He tossed his flashlight into the air, catching it each time. Atalanta hoped that he would miss, just once, and that it would fall on his fat head.

"You mean from the Greek myths?" She asked. She had once loved that story as a kid, now it just annoying. Who would go after golden apples when they were racing, even if they were enchanted apples? It reminded her of what her cousin use to do, '_Oh look shiny! Go chase after it, Atalanta, and you might get lucky,' _he would say and toss a coin into the ocean. She went after once, but never again not after that.

"Yeah, that." Zander said his eyes narrowed. "We better get you to Longwood your arm isn't looking too good."

Her left arm was turning a strange color and it had started to swell. She loosened her grip on it, hoping it wasn't broke. If it was broke, that would affect her running. Atalanta loved to run, it was her life.

|\|\\|/

Zander brought them up a stairwell to metal doors that lead them out of the building and onto a landing. On the deck stood the school's head janitor, the one in the _Buck off_ shirt. "I told you two just to kill the dragons, and I would deal with the girl." He said. Dragons? As in there were or are more than just that one?

"She was almost killed herself out there, Longwood. Do not blame us if you can't get your job right." Zander snapped.

Longwood shook his head, "I don't know what's gotten into you, boy, but it needs to come out and soon. Since, you got her; I guess I say the dragons are goners."

Zander nodded.

"Yeah, they're out of this world." Nick joked weakly.

"Good." Longwood turned to Atalanta, "I know you have questions. I know you don't know us, but you must come with me to a safe haven."

"What about my mom? Who are you? What about the dragons-" She trailed off suddenly feeling guilty about just remembered her mother.

"She's probably fine. My name is Ister-"

"Easter?" She interrupted. Did his parents hate him?

"_Ister _Longwood. Not Easter, Easter is a bad name for a goat." Yeah, his parents completely hated him.

"Isn't that a girl's name?" Atalanta muttered softly.

He made a noise that sounded like a goat baying. "No! It is not! Ister is a fine name! Finer than 'Billy!'" He said. Atalanta shrugged, what a weird-o.

She went to step back but instead she swayed, the black spots came back with revenge, everything spun. "Whoa, there! Careful." When Ister saw that she could stand, he ordered- well, told- her to sit down so he examine her. He gave her something gold to drink and a lemon bar looking thing. As she ate the bar, it tasted like Grandma's infamous green-bean pie, as he wrapped her arm up. "Feel any better?" Ister asked.

She felt better. Ready to fight more dragons, okay, maybe only a small lizard. But she was feeling closer to normal, and her arm wasn't bothering her as much anymore. She nodded, and looked around.

Atalanta hadn't noticed the horses before. If there an elevator for large animals somewhere, she hasn't seen it. The three horses stood near the edge of the railing, with something on their backs. A very starched sheet, maybe. The silver-gray horse in middle spread it's, not a sheet but real live, wings. The gray horse whinnied loudly.

"Okay, okay!" Zander muttered trying calm the horse down. "We should get Camp, Longwood." There it was again, that word: Camp.

"Right. I was just about to say that myself. Well, come on, Atalanta." Ister said standing up to his full, five foot, height. Atalanta wondered if he grew that goatee to make him look older.

Zander walked over to the two of them, the silver winged horse following him. He smiled softly at Atalanta, it was a sad smile. "Come on, Lonnie, you can ride with me." He said. Reaching out his hand to help her up, like a gentleman would.

"'Lonnie?'" She asked, getting up on her own. Atalanta was a big girl, she could handle standing up.

"Well, yeah, 'Lonnie' is easier to say." Zander shrugged. "Come here and meet Seagrape the Pegasus. He likes people and eating stuff."

To say the least the horses looked small from a distance, and even by normal standards Seagrape the Pegasus was pretty large. The horses in Florida were normally a little smaller and not as bulky as the three pegasi that stood before her. Seagrape was the largest of the three, there was Rugby a dull brown pegasus, and there was Meatcake a small chestnut mare. Atalanta wondered who named them.

Zander showed her how to get on, it seemed simple but she wasn't sure because of the wings. She tried to get on the way Zander had instructed her to. Confidence coursed through her, she had gotten on horse before, though this one was bigger than the pony at the fair. Atalanta leaped just a little bit, swinging her leg up and over… she slid off and landed on her back with a loud _oomph!_ Nick laughed, Atalanta could swear Seagrape and his buddies were laughing at her too. Zander only rolled his eyes obviously annoyed that she wasn't able to get on the pegasus her first try.

"Let me help." He said, sliding off the back of Seagrape. Zander hooked his hands together and gave her a boost. Atalanta was able to get onto Seagrape without much trouble after that. "Now just don't slide off!" Zander told her as he got ready to get on.

"Can Seagrape handle the two of us?" She asked.

"Guess we'll find out. Scoot back… No! Just a little bit! Okay, that's good. Like I said before don't fall off." Zander instructed. He got on without much trouble.

"Ready?" Nick asked ahead of them.

"Yup. Uh, let's go." Ister ordered.

"How are we going to get down?" Atalanta asked so softly only Zander could hear her.

"You're about of find out. Hold on to me and don't let go." He said and Seagrape took off skyward, his wings spread wide.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this world. Not even the characters: my brother owns most of them.

A/n: I wrote this for my brother right after we moved in June. I decided to post because I have moved away, and I don't get to see him much at all. So this is here, more for him to read than anything else.


	2. Chapter 2

_Two_

Weirder things had happened to her today than riding a flying horse. Zander was right when he told her to hang on tight; they were flying fast and very, very high in the sky. Being so high up scared her senseless until she looked down. The ground below her looked like the quilt Grammy had made her for Christmas last year- little patch work bright green here, a dull square of yellow or some blue stains of water there, and gray homes like stitch work bordering the patching.

Atalanta leaned over more hoping to get a better view. The wind blew into her hair, and blasted her face. She laughed at sheer satisfaction of flying. It was just her luck when a bug slammed into the face. "Blah-yuck!" she muttered, hiding her face behind Zander.

"That dress cannot be comfortable." Zander said looking at her from the corner of his eye.

Atalanta had forgotten that she was wearing the stupid thing, but now that she thought about it, she was very uncomfortable. The hair from the Pegasus was rubbing the skin on her legs raw. "Point?" She asked.

The clouds were close enough to touch. If only she could stand up…

"There isn't one. But we are going to speed this up eventually, so don't let go." He told her.

"Wait, you said 'our kind' before, like we are something different." She pointed out. It has been bothering her since he said it.

Atalanta felt Zander sigh.

His back was warm, the air was up this high was freezing, and she didn't have her sweater with her any more, it was sitting on the bench in that dress store, probably burnt to a crisp. She leaned into him just a little more, trying to warm up. "We're half and half." he told her.

"Half and half of what?" Atalanta was positive he wasn't talking about them being coffee creamer.

He twisted around so he could look at her in the eyes, his blue eyes crackled like cold lighting. "Half human and half Greek god." He explained, "One of your parents is a god, the other is mortal."

Atalanta would have proclaimed him crazy, but she was riding on a flying horse some hundred feet in the air and she had just met a dragon formally. So, Greek gods… uh, sure why not, just as long as there wasn't any unicorns. Unicorns would freak her out.

"What about Steven?" Atalanta said suddenly thinking about her brother.

Ister slowed Meatcake down so his side-by-side with Seagrape. "Is this Steven your brother?" He asked.

Atalanta nodded. Steven is only a baby, no more than nine months old. Grammy was willing to watch him for the day so Mom and Atalanta could spend time together. She sniffled. Was Mom safe? "Yeah, but he's only a baby. He cannot be brought in into that," She waved her hand behind her, where the mall and dragon were.

Ister made the relief on his face known. "If he's only a buckling there's nothing we can do, but I'll tell Chiron. He'll take care of it." He said happily. "Now, I'm sick of Florida, let's go home." He said looking at the small city below with distaste.

"Close your eyes, and hold on tight, Lonnie." Zander said.

Atalanta took one last glance at the bright September sun, comforted she turned away. She tightened her grip and prayed she wouldn't fall or go insane. Though she was pretty sure she was already a nut-job.

|\|\\|/

Atalanta had always enjoyed running, the speed, the wind, and brief moment of complete freedom, but riding a Pegasus was different. Seagrape flew so high in the atmosphere that the cool air nipped at her skin and wind rushed though her hair. And, oh, there was freedom, lots of freedom, especially when the Pegasus was diving straight for the ground like a bomb.

Atalanta should have closed her eyes like Zander had said, but Atalanta thought she should brave it out. It was cool at first the sky blurred past her- she didn't dare look down. The blurring sky stopped after a few seconds, but she stopped enjoying it when Zander told Seagrape to dive. The sky had blurred past her again, they were headed for the ground, air-missile style. She screamed and clenched onto Zander, fearing she might fall to the ground. Atalanta did not want to become a permanent fixture in the hillside.

Seconds before the ground pancake-d them; Seagrape righted himself and landed gracefully on his feet. Seagrape pranced happily in a circle, to whether he didn't turn into dust or successfully preformed a deadly dive, Atalanta wasn't sure. A bunch of kids trickled from all over the valley, wanting to see what was going on and who was here.

"Showoff," Atalanta muttered.

She was still shaking, but she forcefully took her arms back from around Zander's waist. Her left arm burned a little as she moved it, but she ignored the pain and found herself sliding off of Seagrape. She went with it and slid off, landing sweetly on the ground. If she thought her arm hurt, it was nothing compared to the way her legs felt. She swore she would never, _never_ to put on another dress.

Meatcake and Rugby landed and either side of Seagrape and Atalanta. Nick was scowling at Zander, who was grinning profoundly, overlooking the commotion he had brought on. There were murmurs of approval, which equaled the sounds of annoyance from the crowd. There were as many as twenty-five kids in the group from maybe eight to the collage age, eighteen or nineteen. All of the kids wore orange T-shirts; Atalanta noticed that Zander had one on too. In black letters were the words:

___Camp Half-blood. Atalanta wondered if she had been taken to some kind of cult._

"Zander!" A girl, with a battle axe in hand, pushed her way through the crowd. "I told you Seagrape was better, not completely healed!"

"I know." He beamed at her. "Seagrape's fine, Nellica. Chill."

Nellica still didn't look happy about it. She looked over for the first time noticing Atalanta. Nellica had pin-straight russet hair that was pulled back into a neat ponytail, light bangs covered her heart shaped, lightly tanned skin with nearly invisible freckles on her face, where a pair of deep brown almond shaped eyes shined with malice. At least Atalanta thought they were brown, they looked almost blue, or green? To add to that she was tall the lean, and her arms and legs extremely thin, like someone could just snap them off with a flick of their wrist. …"She's the one? Looks _a lot _older than thirteen-" Basically, Atalanta thought, this Nellica resembles a stick with a face, hair and limbs, "-she should be claimed by now."

Before Atalanta could ask what claiming was, a guy pushed his way though and she did a double take. Zander and this new guy looked almost exactly alike. Everything from face, to the way they walked, it was all the same. The new guy came up to Zander and they exchanged a high-five, both of them were grinning like idiots.

Atalanta turned to look at Ister, who had just gotten off the little pegasus, Meatcake; he was looking over her head like he was waiting for something. "Zander, give Atalanta the tour. Start with the sables, you can take care of the pegasi while you'rat it. Nick and I are going the Big House." He pet his goatee like he was willing it to grow.

Zander shrugged and the other boy grinned. Both of the boys turned to Atalanta. "Come on, Lonnie. I know you have questions and I'm full of answers." Zander smiled dangerously.

Atalanta rolled her eyes.

"Her name's Lonnie?" The other guy asked he was leaning over the horse looking at Atalanta. She was sure she looked ridiculous wearing a hot pink homecoming dress that was stained with shoe oil and water from meeting a winged fire breathing lizard, and her usual olive colored tennis shoes. "No. My name's Atalanta Reis. That-" she jabbed her thumb at Zander, "likes to call me names."

"She's being absurd. I haven't called her anything nearly insulting- vocally." He defended.

Atalanta raised her eyebrow at him, thinking though the conversations. He was right. Still…

The boy smiled. "I'm Galen. Zander's older and better brother, by every term. I suppose we could get started on that tour." Galen proved to be easier to talk to than Zander, and he had a lot more to say. "What do you know so far?" he asked when they had gotten the winged horses into the sables.

"I guess that one of my parents, my dad probably, is a geek god." She said. The sables- barn- was made of a dark wood. It smelt well, not bad. But not all too great either.

"_Greek_ god. I don't believe there's a god of geeks." Zander corrected her.

"Well, there's Athena." Galen pointed out.

"Athena is the goddess of wisdom, war and useful arts. Not that you'd know what wisdom or useful is, but I still don't see how any of that is geeky." Zander yawned.

Galen glared at his brother. "Anything else?" She shook her head. "I thought so, Zander doesn't have patience for explain this matter. Ask anything."

"Okay, where am I?" She asked Galen.

"In the sables, at Camp Half-blood." Zander said trying to be smart again.

"I didn't ask you." Atalanta sneered at him. "What's Camp Half-blood?" She turned back to Galen.

"It's the only safe place for kids like us. For demigods." Galen told her.

Galen went on and showed her the camp, explaining a few things as they went. Camp offered: archery, pegasus riding (Atalanta already had experience in that and wasn't itching to go at it again,) a lava climbing wall, monster fighting, arts and crafts, volleyball, chariot races, a forest full of demigod munching monsters- normal stuff you'd find at a summer camp. He told her that the camp as mostly a summer camp, but there a few kids who stayed all year round.

Galen had showed her the lush valley where a strange collection of cabins were arranged in a Greek Omega: W , a half circle at the top and two wings on either side. There were about twenty cabins in all. One was gold and across from that one there was a silver one, one was set up like a war house, well another looked like an old prairie cabin, "each cabin represents a Greek god." Galen had said, "The cabins are a place for that god's children to live."

Zander helped out too, mostly by pointing to an open air diner that over looked Long Island, New York, and saying that they were on Long Island Sound, and that this valley was enchanted, so humans only saw a strawberry field, because of the Mist (Galen had to tell her what Mist was. "It hides the truth from the humans, they don't have the capability to understand any of this," he had told her) and the weather inside the camp was controlled too.

Atalanta had a hard time taking it all in. "That lizard thing-"

"Dragon." Zander told her.

"Dragon… oh, whatever. It attacked, in Florida, half way across the country, and now you're trying to tell me that I'm in New York?" She took a deep breath trying to comprehend all that she was being told.

"A dragon came after you?" Galen looked a little pleased. "Cool."

"Its not cool, Gal. Lonnie, You're what- fifteen? The godly parents are supposed to claim their children by the time they turn thirteen. They promised that a little over five years ago, to not to ignore their demigod children- after this huge war or something. Anyway, that was done because the older you get the more monsters notice you, you're pretty much screaming '_here I am come and relocate my innards!_'" Wow, Zander is pretty mellow, "that's why Ister was at your school." He put up his hand, stopping her from asking questions, any questions. "Ister is a satyr; half man and half goat. Satyrs search schools for demigod children- normally in middle schools."

"So why wasn't I claimed?"

"We don't know." Galen said calmly, "you'll probably be claimed tonight. This isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened. Don't worry."

"It's almost dinner time." Zander informed everyone.

"Yeah." Galen frowned, "let's go. Atalanta will probably like help finding her table."

"The unclaimed table. Well, have fun with that."

Atalanta did not like the way that sounded, it sounded like it was a curse.

|\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\|

Nick wasn't happy that Zander would be giving the new girl a tour of Camp. Zander would probably find a way to mess it all up, or he'd probably tell her something that went along the lines of: _"We all like to play around in the forest alone at night, and try to be killed in painful and unimaginable ways, it's a great past time. Most of the kids go out on Thursdays or on full moons, but I personally like Fridays, that's when the Sirens feed. you should come along. I'll meet you at the big ant hill just north of here at midnight, bring something big and shiny." _Yeah, that sounded like him.

|\|\|/

Nick frowned looking up at the Big House, well, the only house at Camp Half-Blood. He hadn't gotten permission to leave Camp, so he could meet up with his friend, and he was dreading having to deal with Mr. D. Nick thanked all the gods, that he knew of, that Seymour was only a head on the wall because Nick was sure that the leopard would have been ordered to sic him otherwise. Maybe Nick would be lucky and he'd be turned into a serpent or a garden snake, his mother's sacred animal a serpent that is, and he could chase around mice all day. Nick tried to imagine his life as a scaly flexible living stick, but came up blank.

Chiron was sitting on the wraparound pouch, in his human form. Chiron is normally a horse, well, half horse but today his lower half was hidden in a magical wheelchair. The wind chimes chimed loudly, Nick jumped, and he didn't see any angry wine god. "He's not here. Why don't you two come sit down, there's some Iced Tea left." Chiron said as if reading his thoughts or whatever it was he did.

A curly redheaded, freckled faced woman, in her early twenties sat beside the horse man. She was wearing her normal orange Camp T-shirt and marked up jeans, "Hey, Nick." Rachel Elizabeth Dare smiled.

"Thank you, Chiron. Afternoon, Rachel." Nick shivered. Rachel scared him half to death.

Both Ister and Nick sat down and at the table, Nick was sitting next to Rachel. Dang it.

Grr,

___Seymour said. "Oh, hey, Seymour." The leopard-head seemed pleased and went back to whatever mounted leopard heads normally do all day._

"So, tell us how the evacuation went, Mr. Longwood." Nick couldn't help but stare at the shirt Chiron was wearing. Is that new?

Ister went on to explain what had happened when they were in Florida, Nick threw in the part about the dragons, Chiron only nodded and continued to look annoyed, like someone had dyed his stallion half a bright color of fuchsia. "I see," he said when Ister had finished telling him everything. "We'll see what happens tonight, until then we shall go about the day as normal."

"And if nothing happens tonight?" Rachel asked she was doodling on her pants.

"Are you saying nothing will happen?" Nick heard himself asking her.

"It's just a feeling." The Oracle shrugged.

"We'll have to figure everything out later. Until then, I'm going to clean up." Chiron stoked his neatly trimmed beard, and wheeled into the house. Someone had to of dyed his horse half fuchsia, Nick decided, I've never seen him act this cold to anyone before.

"What crawled up his rear end and died?" Zander asked, he had just appeared out of nowhere and was looking at the front door.

"He's been that way since Mr. D left." Rachel explained, completely unsurprised by Zander's sudden appearance.

"Where'd he go?" Ister had been quiet other than explaining what had happened, Nick had forgotten he was there. Ister didn't seem upset about Mr. D leaving.

"No one knows," she shrugged, "one morning; he just got up and left, ever since Chiron has been acting different."

A horn sounded in the distance.

"Dinnertime." Ister muttered happily, he was probably thinking about all the tin cans he had stashed away.

|\|\\|/

Dinner had been a quiet affair. Chiron was there but he didn't say much, and it turns out that his horse half wasn't any other color than the plain old white it always was. Most of the campers were in a despairing mood, there was a rumor that the Hunters were coming to 'visit'. Nick didn't believe it to be true, the Hunters only visited every now and then, and it's only been a year since their last visit. Nick had thanked everyone of the gods last time that Zander was gone, visiting his family, he was sure that if Zander had been there the whole camp would have been transformed into a war zone. That's what happened the first time.

Nick sat at the Demeter table, with three of his siblings, one of them being Amber Wheaten, but she doesn't talk ever. The other two were in a far corner playing a card game of some sort.

The Ares tables, a few tables down were the loudest, not much had changed there, they were boasting and cheering that they had won a chariot race the other day. Hogan Marc had joined the Ares table, when Nick had left Hogan was still unclaimed. Nick wasn't surprised.

Braylon West, from the Apollo cabin, and Chari Edwards, from Athena, were using sign language to commutate. Both of them were head consolers for their cables, and everyone knew they were planning something. However, nobody knew what it was.

Atalanta sat alone, at the unclaimed table, she was still in that dress, and she was only picking at the food. She did not look happy and she was glaring at Zander. Nick wondered what he said or did. Nick followed her glaze. Galen and Zander were sitting across from each other, they looked to be deep in conversation.

After an hour of wondering if the Hypnos' cabin was having a good nap, Chiron announced that dinner was done, and the bonfire will start at exactly nine-o-clock. The campers wondered off in pairs of two of three, some went to do chores, well others prepared for the sing-a-long.

|\|\|/

Nick was heading to Cabin 4, when he noticed a girl with golden-brown eyes, like shattering glass, in a pink dress that shone orange in the sunlight, sitting on the edge of the fountain. Her feet were soaking in the cold water, he walked over, and she was shivering. Was she trying to turn herself into a pink Klondike bar?

"Cold?" he guessed.

She jumped, turning around to glare at Nick. "N-n-no." She stuttered though blue lips. Of course, she was shivering; it was only 40 degrees Fahrenheit out. Nick didn't know why but he had a feeling she was lying.

"Doubt that. I have some clothes you can barrow, if you'd like," Nick said, "they're my sister's. You two look like you'd wear the same size."

"Yes!" Atalanta grinned widely, her shattering glass eyes sparkled with delight, "Won't you sister mind?" Nick shook his head, no Tami wouldn't mind. Atalanta jumped up like she has been craving to change into something else.

Nick turned away. "Right this way."

Nick was a sucker for girls, any kind of girls, and Atalanta was by all means that, perhaps more, it was saddening that she had been brought into a world of war, pain, and suffering. His sister had died because of what she was, many of his siblings had, most of them he had never even met. His sister, Tami, was Pappy's pride and joy, and when he heard she was killed in a car crash, well, things changed. Pappy started to drink to lose sight of things, to lose Nick. It took Nick years to know what really happened to his sister, to learn she was murdered. Tami was eight years older than he was and he barely knew her, but she was his hero.

The two demigods walked into the Demeter cabin, no one else was in there. Nick signaled for her to follow, she had stopped to look the plants on the inside of the cabin, it looked more like a greenhouse than a cabin, before he walked to the back of the cabin. Nick reached under his bed were he kept a few things of Tami's and pulled out a faded green duffel bag. Nick unzipped the bag and turned to her.

"You can have whatever fits." He told her. "Change now if you want, I'll close the curtain for ya."

He walked to the girl's side of the cabin and summoned a curtain made of long grasses and other plants to fall behind him. He sat on his sister's old bed, it was someone else's now. He let his mind wonder: the subject of his sister still on his mind.

For some odd reason, this Atalanta, person, first had reminded him of his sister. This was weird because they were nothing alike. That girl, she was quiet and different somehow. Tami was loud and very normal in demigod terms. Tami had looked like Nick, tall as a vine; dark skinned, ink black wispy hair, and eyes the color of freshly cut grass. Atalanta's tawny choppy hair reached her shoulder blades, and three beads hung just under her right ear. The beads distracted Nick when he first saw them, because they made no sense, he wondered why she had them. Until he saw that she was running away from the dragon in a bright dress. He knew right then and there; that she was a runner, and she could probably out sprint him any day, and that she was going to be the dragon's next meal unless he did something.

Nick didn't think as pulled Zander's spear away from him and threw it at the dragon. Zander wasn't happy- no one, not even his friends touches Zander's spear and lives to tell the tale. Zander could take the credit for killing the beast, as always, Nick didn't care. It almost made Zander bearable.

Nick hadn't noticed Atalanta behind him. "Thank you." She said hugging the pink dress to her chest.

"You're welcome." The Camp's orange T-shirt was worn, the black Pegasus had faded to light and Nick saw that she had a belt on to hold up the too long jeans. "Cool, so how about that bonfire? You game?"

"Umm, sure." She grinned before following him out.

Nick hadn't noticed how uncomfortable Atalanta was around him.

|\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\| |\|\|

It was raining! Most of the campers didn't notice, but Zander was thrilled. He was walking back to his cabin, after standing at the edge of the Camp's border where he marveled at the light storm. Well, of course it wasn't raining inside Camp, just outside of it, where the weather borders weren't protecting anything. Lighting zipped across the sky and thunder roared shaking the earth below. What a perfect way to start the day.

When Zander had first gotten here, years ago, he wondered why it never rained inside the Borders, over the years he just chalked it up to the fact that Mr. D was a buzz-kill. Even though Zander disliked the Camp Director, he wondered why he was called away from camp, this was the second time in the past five or so years. The last time it was near disaster, Zander couldn't wait to find out how it ended this time.

Last night, the bonfire was the same as usual, which was of course, unusual for human standards. The flame had blazed colors of cheer. The sour mood from dinner had worn off, as it turned out the Apollo cabin took an extra step to make the mood bright and cheery. One of the Apollo brats told the story of Meleager a prince of ancient times.

The story starts about how Meleager's father, a king, forgot to do something or the other for Artemis, Zander wasn't paying too much attention, so the enraged goddess sent the Calydonian Boar, to his homelands. Well, anyway Meleager killed the big pig thing and some fight happened, that led to Meleaner's mother to throw a magic stick that kept Meleager alive into a fire, and after that she killed herself… Or some happy ending like that.

Huh, Zander needed to pay more attention to this stuff. Nah, it's all boring anyhow, someone could pay attention for him, maybe right notes or something, but it didn't matter. Zander didn't care for history anyhow. All the stories either ended in someone dying or gets turned into an animal or plant. There were no lessons to these stories. Why should he pay attention?

He looked up past Cabin 3, into the pastel sky and frowned, yeah, well this has been fun. Thanks Dad, but next could you pick someone else, he thought. Zander turned away. This life hadn't been easy, this wasn't right. When he was little were most kids wanted to be a superhero or something, Zander just wanted to be normal. He knew he was different he just didn't know what.

_Well, time to break the pity party,_ Zander thought sadly, next he visits Ma he'd go kill a few extra monsters, so he could be all happy like. That had to be the reason he was so down, seeing Ma always got him upset. He needed a distraction.

The distraction came in the form a girl, with choppy blonde hair and golden-brown eyes. "You're up early." She stated, it wasn't even seven o'clock yet.

"Couldn't sleep. What's your excuse?"

Lonnie glared. "Are you always like this, or is this just a phase?"

"You still haven't answered me."

Lonnie, otherwise known as Atalanta, looked up at him a scowl on her face that seemed to match his mood, strange how that works. "I'm always up early, it's the best time to go for a run. Happy?" Lonnie said.

She'd act different to him. Zander smirked, yeah, her way of speaking to him would change too. They always changed once they realized who his father is. Always.

"Hmm. Where are you going to run? I mean, the wood are off limits and most of the others will be up soon."

Lonnie scanned the area, she was twisting her hair. Nervous habit, maybe? "I already went. Wait, why are the woods off limits?"

"One word: monsters." Zander grinned.

She seemed to remember her time with Roasty-Toasty the dragon. "Uck." She stuck out her tongue.

"I'm not much of a runner, but I know a mean route." Zander looked at the forest, "For the next time you go, I could show you if you want to walk with me."

"No, thanks. I'm more of a loner." She grinned for the first time since Zander had met her.

"I don't think you'll melt. We have an hour or so before breakfast, and I need some company." The words sounded stiff and demanding, even to his ears.

She scowled but gestured for him to lead.

"No, Lonnie! Hold the spear like this." Zander was exasperated. Somehow along the walk, after showing Lonnie a good route, she had talked Zander into showing her how to use _his spear._ His spear! No one touched his spear! It had all started when they came to a clearing with Zeus' Thumb…

|\|\\|/

"So I don't get it." Lonnie had said.

They had just entered the valley. It wasn't a very popular place because of some battle years ago, most people avoided it now. Bad blood or something like that. Zander made a personal note to ask one of Athena kids about it later, he wasn't paying attention that one time when one of the older campers had told him.

"It's called Zeus' Thumb because it looks like a thumb, Lonnie." Zander explained. He felt something ram into his arm and hard. Did she just punch him?

"I get that! I was talking about your flashlight. I just don't get it." Oh right, his flashlight, they were just talking about it only minutes ago, before they came to the field with that rock thumb.

"I told you, it's magic or something. It doesn't matter either way, I just know it turns into a spear when I press the button." He sat down on one of the rocks.

"A deadly flashlight? That must come in handy when there's monster, but not when it's dark. Like a normal flashlight." She said sarcasm stained her voice. Lonnie had climbed up a few rocks and was headed toward the top.

"Guess so. " Zander looked over the long, sleek, black tube in his hands. He had never thought of it that way. The spear was a gift from his father, Zander has never really been able to call his father, 'Dad' it seemed wrong somehow.

Zander heard a few rocks fall; one innocently hit him the back of the head. Zander swirled around, finding Lonnie standing right behind him. She swiped the flashlight out of his hands, "Ah-ha!" She grinned. A bright beam of light shot out of the lens before it settled into a black metal shaft, the tip shown bright bronze in the sunlight.

"Give that back!" Zander made a wild grab for his spear, but Lonnie had already at the top of the Thumb.

"So, are you going teach me how to use it, or what?"

|\|\\|/

Lonnie may be graceful when it came to walking and climbing, but she couldn't hold a spear if her life depended on it, and it probably would come to that. Zander spent over an hour trying to get her to hold the shaft correctly, he didn't even want to think about her using it to defend herself. She'd probably knock herself out while trying to kill the monster and that'd be no good.

"I don't think this is the right weapon for you," He advised, making another grab at his spear, she held it closer to her chest.

"I want to learn." She said stubbornly. "If there are things or monster, whatever you call them, trying to kill me I should at least know how to defend myself." The spear had once again found its way in the dirt. Lonnie stood staring determination was written all over her face. Zander had a feeling she wasn't going to give up anytime soon.

"How about we go and get something to eat, at least. I'm starved." Zander's stomach growled loudly almost as if to prove his point.

"Boys and food," she murmured, pressing the bottom the spear to make it shrank back into a flashlight. Lonnie beamed, "Alright, but you will teach how to use this." She waved the flashlight in front of Zander's face, he grabbed it from her. _Mine._

\

The trees were starting to change color; bright colors of yellow, orange and red were mixed in with the emerald flourish. The two teen demigods took a very unused shortcut back to camp. Instead for talking about who they were or their past, the two demigods played a game of _I Spy_. It was lame and Zander knew it, but it was better than the quiet, it was better than letting himself think about Ma. It was always better to not think about Mom.

By the time they were halfway to camp, both Lonnie and Zander were arguing about who's turn it was, seeing that both of them were very suborn, this could take awhile.

|\|\\|/

"Shhh!" Zander hissed though the lighted kitchen.

It was a miracle that Zander hadn't straggled Lonnie, not only for touching his spear, talking her way into getting him to teach her how to use _his spear_, and making him miss breakfast, but now she had seemed to find to kitchen before he had. That wasn't the worst part, she's louder than the Fields of Punishment. Each step she took sounded like a million Trojan soldiers marching down a road made of Whoopee Cushions. Once again, Zander found himself irked… there was just no other way to explain how he felt.

"Can it, Zander." She hissed back. She peeked though a doorway. "No one here, come on." she waved him into the kitchen. Zander didn't even know the camp had a kitchen.

As Zander looked in the wooden cupboards he heard the seal to refrigerator break, of course she'd be the one who would think of opening the white box. She putted out some yogurt and apples, it wasn't much but they couldn't risk to a great amount. The two kids snuck out of the building, almost getting caught a few times. Luckily Zander was use to sneaking about and he led them to safety.

It only took them twenty minutes to find a shaded spot away from prying eyes, which was next to impossible in this place. The two demigods sat side by side, Lonnie leaned against a tall tree. The girl didn't know about the nymphs yet, so this was going to be entertaining.

Dinner and a show, Zander thought snickering.

"What's so funny?" She asked.

"Nothing. Yet."

He plucked his rationings away from the girls, smirking ear-to-ear. Lonnie gave him a sour look, whether it was from what he said or something else he wasn't sure. Zander smiled arrogantly, before taking a large bite out of the juicy apple. He looked out over the strawberry fields, the red fruit shone brightly in the sun light. Zander had thought about stealing from the fields, but he was almost positive that one of the Demeter kids or some satyr would report him to Chiron.

There was a lot to think about things that Zander didn't want to register at this moment. But, then again he didn't exactly want his mind to wonder either. He tried to force his mind blank, so he could just not think of anything at all, but failed. Demigod ADHD, he had heard someone call it one, it was probably some lame joke that Zander would never understand.

Zander took one last bite out of the apple before throwing it down the hill, it rolled before stopping, hitting some camper's heel. The camper picked up the remains of the apple, looking over the field, at the hill where Zander and Lonnie sat, before looking away due to the glare of the sun. Once again Zander smiled at seemingly nothing.

He sat up, pulling off the top the of the yogurt, it was strawberry flavored, figures. He grabbed the spoon he hid in his sweater pocket. Zander slowly dipped the spoon into the food, making sure that the sun would glare off of the silver. Lonnie looked out up at Zander.

"You have a spoon." She stated, pretty stupidly.

"Glad you know what it is." Zander took another bite, showing off the silverware.

She narrowed her eyes, but didn't say anything farther.

Zander was half way though his yogurt, when he saw the tree nymph. She had poked her head out of her tree, at first she seemed to thinking about coming out completely until she saw Zander. The tree nymph glared, giving Zander the impression that he had raced her in his first years, before melding back into the tree.

He laughed. This time Lonnie didn't ask him what he was laughing at, instead she just stared at him. As if she was calculating his sanity. He laughed louder, before getting up.

"Well, that was fun." He said, "Here you can have this now." Lonnie looked up at Zander from her resting point, as he tossed her his spoon. He watched it land next to her in the grass.

"Excuse me, where are you going?" She stood up as well, leaving the spoon in the dirt.

"To the Lava Wall. You're boring me."

He walked down the hill smirking, leaving the bewildered girl behind.

* * *

A/N: I know this is different from my other writing but I like get inside all of their heads. Zander is my favorite to narrate from, Nick is my least favorite. Atalanta/Lonnie, oh, she's fun to mess with (or write from, but Zander is still the best so far….) and Zander is a … he's something I will n0t say in pubic… so it's a perfect mix.

All the | or\ or this |\|\\|/ is just because I'm much to lazy to reread this stuff the 6th time to press shift and enter so please ignore it.

Tell me what y'all are thinking, it's driving me insane not to know what I can fix up or improve on or if I have the chapter just right. So please review or message me something so I know.

Have a blessed weekend.


End file.
